Michael Bendok and his friend Samuel Steiner —12-year-old seventh graders at Phoenix Country Day School — were looking for something to do that would contribute to the community.

Steiner, whose brother has a rare disease, figured they could raise money for rare disease research. They added a couple of other friends to the team — Matthew Linhart and Xander Black.

They chose to raise money for the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a nonprofit research group based in Phoenix that includes rare diseases in its vast research efforts.

Last August, when Dr. Bernard Bendok moved his family to Arizona from Chicago to become head of neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic, he was worried about his son Michael adapting to a new school and new friends.

"This has been a wonderful, incredible way to embrace a new community and make friends and rally around the cause," Bernard Bendock said. "It's been wonderful to watch. We're lucky that he is able to adapt in this way and really do something good for the community and for rare diseases."

The boys started with a coin drive in January, raising $1,200 in a weekend.

In the first two months of 2016, they have raised over $7,000 toward a calendar year goal of $20,000 to support rare disease research.

"The most exciting part for me is that I get to help the community in a way that not many people think of," said Michael Bendok. "No one really pays attention to rare diseases, even though they're not that rare."

In the U.S., a disease is considered rare when it affects fewer than 200,000 Americans. But because there are more than 7,000 different rare diseases, more than 30 million Americans are affected.

“I am so impressed by these four young men,” said Robyn Nebrich-Duda, assistant director of development for the TGen Foundation. “Right now, only 5 percent of rare disorders have an FDA approved treatment. When they saw one of their friends fighting everyday with a rare disorder they stepped up to raise funds that will advance TGen research and make a difference in the lives of these children.”